


Blood

by redcoatfollower



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2018-04-10 21:07:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4407680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redcoatfollower/pseuds/redcoatfollower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blood was abstract. Until it wasn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood

     He had never considered his blood before he knew the Citadel.  Sure he had seen it and tasted it many times, but it had always remained something abstract. He knew it was important to life and had spent hours trying to get it to stop leaking from bullet wounds, stab wounds, whatever, but it always eventually did, and the weakness its absence left behind always disappeared.

     They had wanted his blood though, treated it as if liquid gold pumped from his veins. He had gotten used to being bled, hung upside down from a cage like an IV bag of skin and bone, the tattoo on his back declaring his magical blood finally covered in shadows and healing scabs. He had accepted this life, which he hoped wouldn't be much longer. This was payment for his failures. Each ounce of thick fluid that flowed from him brought him one step closer to the ground, where there would be no more blood, no more nightmares, just silent nothingness.

     But then she needed it, the Imperator, the one who had held onto him even as a knife was driven into her side. She had held onto him even as the straps holding her mechanical arm groaned and snapped. She had held onto him as if he was the most important thing in the world at that moment. More important than the War Rig, the Wives, even herself. She knew, somewhere in the fogginess of pain and incredible mental focus, that they all needed the Fool, and he would be their redemption.

     And now, as she lay gasping stale, irradiated air in the back of the Gigahorse, he started to think about blood. Her blood, smeared over her swollen face, catching in worn leather belts, pooling beneath her as huge droplets, pregnant with crimson fluid, fell soundlessly onto the floor of the fallen king's vehicle. His blood, running hot and thick in his veins, liquid gold. High Octane.

     The sun was setting, burning orange over the sandy expanse of the Waste. The battle standards flapped loudly from the car as they slid through the current of air, a memory of a time that would be no longer. And inside, the Wives, the members of the Many Mothers, watched them, watched the Imperator slipping away, and only he acted.

     He shoved the point of a blade between her ribs, his apology sincere and muted, but still there. The expulsion of air came in a thick, wet puff that immediately eased her breathing.  He shoved bandages into the hole he had created and spoke softly to her, holding her face in his hands and bringing her pallid skin, the lips that were still tinged with blue close to his ear so that he could hear her words. And when she visibly started to slump, he muttered a string of nononono and blood was once again on his mind, the thought of it roaring loudly in his ears.

     The tubing, the needles, his hands, her arm, all wore the grime of the Waste, the dirt of their struggles, the dust of forgotten hope. Yet, the liquid that slid through the lifeline that tethered them together was as pure as Holy Water, as healing as the blessings from every god that humans had manifested in the old world and this world. It filled them both with the idea that your past did not define you, only the present could do that. The right now, this moment, that was all that mattered. That was hope. That was redemption. That was what would save this terrible world.

     He considered blood. His blood, now mixing with what remained of hers. And he spoke his name, nodding as he did so, just as much for himself as for her. They both deserved that.


End file.
